The Gotham Awards is a night to celebrate independent film, but Cailee Spaeny slipped in a tease for 20th Century Studios’ upcoming “Alien: Romulus” when asked about the project on the red carpet Monday night. The “Priscilla” star stars in the Fede Alvarez-directed revival, which has been described as a standalone story in the “Alien” universe. Now, Spaeny has confirmed a rumour about its place in the franchise’s continuity.
“It’s supposed to take place between the first film and the second film,” Spaeny tells Variety’s Michaela Zee. “They brought in the same team from ‘Aliens,’ the James Cameron film. The same people who built those xenomorphs actually came in and built ours. So to see the original design with the original people who have been working on these films for over 45 years and have spent so much of their lives working on them was really incredible”.
Ridley Scott’s original 1979 sci-fi horror film ended with Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley ejecting a Xenomorph from her escape pod and entering a cryogenic sleep for a long journey back to human civilisation. Seven years later, James Cameron picked up the story with Aliens, in which Ripley accompanied a military mission to investigate a possible xenomorph attack on a distant space colony. Whether Alien: Romulus is specifically about Ripley or the events of the first two films remains uncertain.
“My first film was big-budget sci-fi,” Spaeny continues, referring to her role in the 2018 kaiju sequel “Pacific Rim: Uprising.” “I feel like I’m going back to that world. And I’m having so much fun. I like trying to do as many different things as I can. So I traded in my high heels and my beehive for space suits and a lot of wire work. … I love watching those old action sci-fi movies from the 70s and 80s. And I’m such a fan of that IP and Sigourney Weaver. It’s legendary to be a part of that.
On the Gothams carpet, Spaney also responded to Variety’s report that Lisa Marie Presley expressed shock and horror at the Priscilla scripts before the film went into production. The late Elvis Presley’s daughter, who died four months after sending emails about the Sofia Coppola film, stated that her father “only comes across as predatory and manipulative” in the project.
“My heart went out to her when I read those messages. But I spent my time talking to Priscilla because that’s who the film was about,” Spaeny says. “That’s who I was playing. That’s who I spent all my time with, making sure that she felt safe and that she felt represented in the telling of the story”.
Spaeny is nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance for “Priscilla” at this year’s Gotham Awards. “Alien: Romulus” is scheduled for release on 16 August 2024.